Jonathan Robinson, the chief operating officer of NetNames, said: “With the .asia launch date confirmed, businesses need to ensure they protect their brands from the new threats and maximize any opportunities to build their brands in the growing Asian market. Many brands lost out in dramatic fashion during the launch of .eu because they didn’t take the issue seriously enough until the eleventh hour.”

Applications for .asia domain names will be split into three phases in an effort to avoid the free-for-all that accompanied the launch of .eu.

• Starting October 9, companies will be allowed to secure registered trademarks.
• In the same phase, governments will also be able to register web addresses.
• From November 13, companies that have secured their trademarks will be invited to secure additional domain names related specifically to their line of business.
• At the same time, registered companies with an official presence in Asia will also be able to secure their business or other trading names, whether or not they are trademarked.
• The .asia domain name will then open to the public next February.

For more information and to register your .asia domains please visit www.asiadns.com

- VintageAirplanes.com   5,700,-
- StageRental.com   —
- Toy.net   26,000,-
- StockTrades.com   25,000,-
- BondFund.com  12,000,-
- IrishWhiskey.com  8,000,-
- BakingSuppliers.com
- PrivateTutors.com 16,000,-
- PrivatePilots.com  20,000,-
- Historian.com 25,000,-
- TechnologyFund 10,000,-
- PinkRoses.com  10,000,-
- VintageMotorcycles.com  14,000,-
- Booksellers.com  25,000,-
- Houses.net 75,000,-
- comicbooks.com  —–
- supplies.com  —
- Breathalyzer.com  —-
- invest.net
- px.net –
- tightrope.com 18,000,-
- sale.mobi
- AutoClassifieds.com  —
- Six.com  —
- Scotland.com  —
- Pedestrians.com
- EgyptianPyramids.com 75,000,-
- rentalproperty.org
- clap.com 21,000,-
- TattooParlor.com —

• September 7, 2007: Sunrise 1 reserved for registration of names by Governments and Public Bodies
• October 7, 2007: Sunrise 2 reserved for intellectual property holders subdivided into three sub-periods
• November 7, 2007: Sunrise 3 reserved for names of companies and organizations within the DotAsia region
• February 8, 2008: Landrush Anyone meeting the DotAsia charter eligibility requirements may apply for any domain name. Premium prices will apply during this period.
• March 2008: Go Live.

“Cybersquatting on kids’ sites is a particularly insidious and dangerous practice, because cybersquatters are not only stealing traffic from legitimate brand holders, but are also in a position to expose children to inappropriate or harmful content,” said Graham MacRobie, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of CitizenHawk. “We encourage brand holders in this market to immediately address misuse of their trademarks online, to help ensure safety of kids online and to maintain the integrity of their brands.”

Although all browsers have security issues uncovered on a relatively regular basis, most of which are rapidly patched up with updates and fixes, the latest beta version of Safari has been put to the test by a number of security researchers, as reported by PC Magazine and others, and is so far failing a lot of security tests.

Problems with Safari uncovered so far include DoS and remote execution bugs, memory corruption that could be exploited, command execution vulnerabilities simply by visiting a web site – and that’s just in the last couple of days. Security researchers are bound to find more bugs in the system, or more ghosts in the machine for Apple to eliminate.

But if the security researchers have been looking for Safari’s vulnerabilities, you can be sure that the ‘bad guys’ are doing the same right now too. Web sites that already carry malware or target unpatched browsers on unpatched or old Windows operating systems will soon start targeting Safari as well.

Undoubtedly, Apple will quickly release fixes and updates for Safari on both the Mac and PC, both before and after the ‘final’ 3.0 release of Safari arrives, just as IE and Firefox do today.

So, should you use Safari on Windows? After all, plenty of Windows users will have downloaded Safari since its release on Monday, and will no doubt have had a surf around to see what it’s like.

It looks and feels just like Safari on the Mac, it’s certainly fun to use. For now, it’s also the latest novelty must-have experience from Apple that Windows users can enjoy. Apple’s download servers must be running hot!

In addition to being the browser-of-the-moment, Safari also heralds a whole new range of Web 2.0 apps that use Safari on Mac OS X, the iPhone and Windows PCs. If the iPhone takes off as expected, and developers create a lot of apps for the iPhone that can be easily made to work on the PC or Mac, Safari use could explode, posing a real threat to both Firefox and Internet Explorer.
But even if the iPhone is a smash hit, it’s unlikely that Safari really will experience truly explosive growth on the PC as those developers should be easily able to port their Web 2.0 apps to an online and offline model, able to be run in a browser window, or able to be independent of browsers at all and run as a normal program, by using Adobe’s AIR and Flex, by using Microsoft’s Silverlight, or by using Google’s Gears.

There are plenty of Firefox fans, after all, on both Windows and OS X, as not all Mac users are enamored with Safari, despite Jobs’ rosy usage figures for Safari in the keynote.

As for Safari 3 beta on Windows – it’s certainly nice to visit and have a bit of a browse around in, just to see what it’s like and to try Apple’s latest Windows compatible software.

But in the absence of some security updates and a final ‘3.0’ version that has undergone extensive bug testing, you wouldn’t want to live in Safari permanently.

Certainly not yet, anyway. Go with Firefox, and if you’re an IE7 user, make sure you get IE7Pro, a free ‘must-have add-on’ that makes IE7 a lot more like Firefox, with crash recovery and more.

But do keep an eye out on Safari. Especially with all the iPhone activity shortly to come, running Safari on Windows and Mac should turn into quite an adventure!

Steve Jobs was under pressure to impress the world at the Apple WorldWide Developers Conference, and that he did with a great preview of Leopard, promising 300 new features while highlighting 10 to whet our appetites.

Jobs managed to throw in a joke at Vista’s expense, saying there was a basic version of OS X 10.5 for US $129, and a premium version which would cost… wait for it… US $129, effectively showing that one operating system version is easier to deal with than the 73 million different flavors Vista is available in.

Apple showcased a new Desktop, a new ‘Stacks’ feature that makes it easier to find open programs and files; a new version of Finder that uses Cover Flow to show you the files in different folders just as you see cover art in iTunes; a new preview mode called ‘Quick Look’ that lets you see into files, even play media files, all without opening the actual app, saving you time; improved networking and file sharing that makes it easy to find files across the network; the Time Machine to find accidentally deleted files or even restore your Mac to an earlier time; Spaces to better organize desktops and applications and new versions of iChat, Mail, iCal, Web Clip, Boot Camp and some new development tools.

Jobs said that “Leopard is the best release of Mac OS X to date, surpassing even Tiger, and will further extend Mac OS X’s leadership as the most advanced and innovative operating system in the world. We think current and prospective customers are going to love Leopard, and that it will help make the Mac even more popular.”

The main Apple website has been re-designed, with a focus on Leopard, giving users the ability to watch demos of all the features in action, so they can see why Leopard will be more than worth the US $129 entry fee. Leopard is also fully 64-bit, with Jobs demonstrating during the keynote how this dramatically speeds up OS operation.

Boot Camp still requires you to own a copy of Windows XP or Vista, which will run as a separate operating system. To run Windows virtually, you’ll still need Parallels 3.0 or VMware’s Fusion Beta 4.

Apple also announced OS X 10.5 Leopard Server, which Apple says is “even easier for users to set up and manage”.

It will also ship in October, presumably alongside the consumer release of Mac OS X 10.5, with Apple saying that Leopard Server is “the most significant improvement to the server operating system since Mac OS X Server was launched, introducing new features such as a wiki server, making it easy to connect groups over a shared intranet; Podcast Producer, the ideal way to automatically produce and publish podcasts to iTunes or a blog; and Spotlight Server to quickly find content stored on other servers. Leopard Server also includes the new iCal Server, based on the CalDAV open standard that works with Leopard’s new iCal application”.

Whichever way you slice it, Apple’s new OS for consumers and businesses is a great leap forward, making Vista’s ‘Aero’ interface lose a bit, or perhaps even a lot, of its shine.

With an Apple Mac running OS X 10.5 and Vista through virtualization or Boot Camp, the wow really does start now – or rather, in October.

So they added the advertising, and these links now pull in $1,000 a day or more, according to The Register. In the court case, uTube is asking “for monetary damages, as well as injunctions to stop YouTube’s operation and for the court to transfer the YouTube.com domain to uTube.While some of uTube’s claims have been dismissed, others haven’t and the judge “gave uTube permission to amend its complaint to see if it can revive any of the dismissed causes of action.” The Register continues “the court said that uTube didn’t have a case for trespass to chattels, since some physical contact with an object must be involved for such a claim to go forward. Domain names aren’t physical objects, the court argued, and uTube used a third-party hosting service, so it couldn’t claim ownership in the computer equipment that crashed as a result of the influx of visitors.

“Moreover, the court continued, the visitors to the site were the ones that ‘violated’ the site, so YouTube itself wouldn’t be liable even if there had been a trespass.

One of uTube’s nuisance allegations has been dismissed, “since nuisance claims must involve land, and uTube had not shown that a domain name, website, or host server somehow constitute real property in any way.” I find this quite interesting, and maybe this will be one of the important decisions to come out of the case. Eric Goldman writing in Circle ID picks up on this point, noting to him it’s also the most interesting point.

Goldman notes that in this case “we’re talking about a smaller possessory interest than conversion, and the court rightly understands that [trespass to chattels] TTC could become a bypass to trademark infringement. As a result, this decision channels unhappy domain name owners towards trademark claims instead of some TTC bypass.”

Goldman then notes “Even if the domain name itself can’t be trespassed, the plaintiff can still claim that the computer servers attached to the domain name were trespassed.” The court dismisses the claim for two independent reasons:
“1) The plaintiff uses a third party web host, and the court says that the plaintiff didn’t allege an adequate possessory interest in its host’s equipment.” Here Goldman questions whether as he pays a nominal amount for bandwidth charges associated with his domain name, should he bear a cost for a third party trespassing his website and he bore the economic consequences from bandwidth usage, then he should be able to claim TTC even though he only ‘leases’ the computer space and shares the computer with other sites.” I agree with his view that “perhaps this warrants more thought.” Goldman gives a more detailed explanation in the Circle ID site.
“2) Independently, the court correctly says that YouTube’s customers, not YouTube itself, are “contacting” utube.com, and therefore YouTube isn’t committing the actus reus. This result also appeared to be designed to channel this complaint into trademark law.”

The Register notes this case is unlikely to succeed, and with my limited knowledge of the law, I’d have to agree it “seems laughable that a court would shut down YouTube or strip it of its domain name, since the relative detriment to YouTube would greatly outweigh the benefit to uTube.”And finally, The Register notes “Oh, wait – YouTube still doesn’t have a solid revenue model, does it? That could change things a bit … Maybe they should try selling ringtones.”

But it is not the whole country up for grabs – just the internet domain name of scotland.com.

Chris Leggat, of the United States-based company moniker. com, which acts as an internet name broker, said the name would go up for sale at a major conference for domain owners in New York this month.

Mr Leggatt – whose father emigrated to America from Glasgow – said: “There is only one Scotland, so that makes scotland.com extremely valuable.” The site is owned by a Seattle firm, which registered it in 1995 for what could have been as little as £75. Mr Leggatt said the site featured some tourist content, but the domain was under-utilised, although it still attracts a million hits a month.

“It was bought purely for commercial reasons and has enormous potential,” he said. “Scotland is a great place and people want to know about it. I would like it to come back to Scotland.”

Although the auction is being held in New York, bids will be accepted from all over the world.

Struan Robertson, a technology law expert with Pinsent Mason in Glasgow, said: “This is a huge business, but the people who are active in these kind of sales tend to be professionals.

“Their business is buying and selling these names and using the names they hold to generate advertising income.”

Mr Robertson said that some domain names had raised huge sums for their owners. He doubted that scotland.com would attract multi-million dollar bids, but said it “should certainly get into six figures”.

Especially thanks to the latest virtualization software to run Windows XP and Vista with ease of the Mac platform, with Parallels 3.0, VMware’s Fusion Beta 4 and Apple’s own Boot Camp software (beta 1.3) to run XP or Vista natively, it’s a golden age of computing for Apple and Mac owners.

There’s never been more software and hardware support for Mac OS X, and now the ability to run XP or Vista at the same time, even without physically having to enter the XP or Vista desktop environments is an amazing development, with Parallels 3.0 now offering ‘Coherence 2.0’, and Fusion offering ‘Unity’ to make this possible.

Although plenty of long-time Mac users will scoff at the desire to run Windows or Linux when Mac OS X is available, all those new Mac owners are most likely ‘switchers’, going from the world of Windows to the magic of the Mac for the first time.

Being able to seamlessly run Windows-only software on your Mac desktop at effectively native speed is a revolution, and takes away the pain of having to give up software you like using because a Mac version isn’t available.

Of course, while it is relatively easy to set up on a new Mac, especially if you’re a relatively experienced computer user, beginners might want to get their Mac fanatic friend to help. After all, if you’re running Windows, and it has Internet access, you will need a firewall, antivirus and other software, be it free or paid versions.

Our advice for total beginners is to just get a Mac and use Mac OS X – it does everything you need with style, after all.

But if you’re well used to PC’s and have always thought about getting a Mac, there really has never been a better time. It’s not difficult, and having a Mac that’s also a PC, running all PC software but without requiring you to even look at the Windows desktop, is something that has already reached the ‘second generation’, making running Windows on a Mac reliable and now, invisible if desired.

Better compatibility with Windows is earning the Mac platform more new buyers than ever, likely cheered on by Mac owning friends, the PC problems of their friends, their own PC problems and the ‘I’m a Mac… and I’m a PC’ ads on TV, Apple is cooler than ever and sales are hot.

Of course, Microsoft still holds the record with hundreds of millions of PCs sold each year through companies like Dell and HP with Windows XP or Vista pre-loaded, while Apple only sells tens of millions of PCs per year, but Apple’s market share has been undeniably growing – with Mac sales growing faster in the last quarter than iPod sales!

And with Mac OS X 10.5, it’s only going to get better, with Steve Jobs poised to release all those ‘secret features’ and more, including hopefully iPhone news, at next week’s WWDC.

But while Windows’s dominance made it the platform for which the most software is written, and the most hardware is developed, the latest versions of Parallels, VMware and Boot Camp give you the ability to have the best of all worlds. There’s not much better than that!

The four big “ifs” of the upcoming iPhone arise out of Apple’s traditional obsession of keeping tight control over its product platforms. The iPhone is entering a huge market where pretty much everything is open, interchangeable and has been to a great degree been commoditised in favor of the consumer. Having played with one briefly at a Macworld media audience, I can say that the iPhone is a captivating device. However, playing with an iPhone is not the same as living with one.

Will mobile phone and smartphone consumers accept the closed Apple iPhone platform? Right now, all the market research screams yes. Consumers in the US are lining up to get their hands on the new Apple device when it goes on sale on June 29. However, virtually no-one has had a chance to touch an iPhone, let alone live with one.

Market intelligence says that the still growing legions of Apple faithful alone will be enough to buoy iPhone sales for years to come. However, even Mac and iPod fans will eventually be forced to judge iPhone on its merits as a cellphone and smartphone first and foremost because most of them already own phones.
And it is here that the big “ifs” arise.

The first big “if” concerns price. The question is if consumers will be willing to pay US$499 and US$599 up front on a two-year contract for a phone. OK, it’s also an iPod and many iPod owners also have phones, so iPhone gives them two devices in one package. However, outside the US at least, even the fancier cellphones, with smartphone capabilities, such as the Blackberry Pearl and Nokia N95, can be had on two year contracts for nothing up front and dirt cheap capped price plans.

Then what happens after two years are up? These days cellphone users are used to simply ditching their existing phones and getting a new phone on contract without parting with a cent. Can Apple convince them to part with another $500 or more to upgrade to its latest model iPhone when the contract runs out?

Concerning reliability, the question is if the Apple iPhone will be robust and reliable enough to meet the needs of most cellphone and smartphone users. There’s no question that iPhone is a beautiful bleeding edge device. However, to a consumer market used to treating their mobile phone as a commodity that can be thrown on the table, it may just be too beautiful. There are questions surrounding the touch screen and what happens when it gets smudged and what happens if iPhone is continually subjected to moderately rough treatment.
I can remember a salesman in our local Apple store responding to a question about whether an iPod skin would protect it if it got dropped. He simply said with a wry smile: “If you drop your iPod expect it to break.” Well I’ve dropped different cellphones on several occasions. A few times the back has come off and the battery has spilled out. However, on every occasion after putting the phones back together, they worked fine. Will the iPhone be able to stand the drop test?

That brings us to the question of downtime. The iPhone may be turn out to be a very robust and reliable device but if it breaks down what do I do? If I have another phone that breaks down, I can simply transfer my SIM card to an earlier model I have sitting around the house until my phone is fixed. With iPhone, I have to send the phone to Apple and wait until it’s fixed before I have communications again.

The same thing goes for the iPhone battery. I don’t know anyone that actually keeps two batteries for their phone anymore, in case one runs out of charge. However, I do know that if my phone’s battery malfunctions, I can go down to my phone shop and simply replace it with a new one. With iPhone, the battery is not removable so a malfunctioning battery puts the phone out action and forces the user to give the phone back to Apple for service.

The big question that developers want answered is if they soon will be able to get open access to the iPhone so they can develop third party applications for the new device like they can for all other smartphones.

So far Apple has been coy on the issue of third party applications, citing with some justification the necessity of keeping tight control over the stability of the device. Apple doesn’t want to sell a phone that crashes because of dodgy applications. Then again it doesn’t want to miss out on a myriad of rich  functionality that third party mobile developers could provide and says that it is working to find a solution to the problem.

For mobile developers, however, the request by Steve Jobs to be patient while the company works to find a way to enable third party development will wear thin if Apple keeps the iPhone platform closed for too long. This is one market where there are plenty of fish in the sea.

If market intelligence is correct – and there’s no reason to doubt it – Apple is likely to have trouble meeting early demand for the iPhone. However, the true test of whether this remarkable new device will be a winner will come after a few million are in the hands of users. There are a lot of “ifs” that are bound to be answered once that happens.